Steam hydraulic intensifier.



PATENTED FEB. 20, 1906.

T. En HOLMES. STEAM HYDRAULIC INTENSIPIER.

APPLIOAII OH FILED NAILS, 1905.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1;

norms-@056" m w a 0 r my M .wd P. x M Z 7 No. 813,209. PATENTBD FEB. 20,1906. T. E, HOLMES. STEAM HYDRAULIC INTENSIFIER.

APPLICATION FILED MAE.8, 1905.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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0 I I W! UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS EDMUND HOLMES, SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TO DAVYBROTHERS LIMITED, OF SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 20, 1906.

Application filed March 8,1906. Serial No. 248,954..

To all whom it'ma/y concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS EDMUN HOLMES, engineer and chief draftsman, asubject of the King of Great Britain, residing at 63 Sheldon road,NetherEdge, Shefiield, England, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Steam Hydraulic-Intensifiers, of which thefollowing is aspecification.

In hydraulic presses, hammers, shears, and the like constructed on thesteam-intensifier system the main controlling valve (whereby steam isdistributed to the main or pressure-producing cylinder and the retractmgcylinders, respectively) has heretofore usually been operated by meansof a handlever, which being connected directly to the valve-stem has(more particularly in the cases of heavy plants) of necessity beenmovable through an arc of such length as to render its manipulationlaborious when working the press at maximum speed. the device forpreventin excessive travel of the main steam-piston has heretofore beenarranged to operate directly on the stem of the main controlling-valveso that when, for example, the resistance of the pressure of the mainram has happened to he suddenly or accidentally withdrawn the hand-leverhas received so violent a shock as to be apt to escape from the controlof the o erator, while the momentum maintained y the main steam pistonup to the end of its active stroke has even been liable to cause saidiston to strike against and break the cylin e cover.

The present invention is designed to obviate these defects without inany way interfering with the ordinary mode of working the press; and tothis end the invention consists, essentially, in providing (for thepurpose of efiecting the automatic out ofi of the steamsupply) mechanismin the nature of a hunting-gear, which, on the one hand, is connected tothe main controlling-valve and its actuating-lever and, on theotherhand, is ada' t- -ed to be controlled automatioallyby t e mainsteamiston, the said actuating-lever being contro ed either directlybyuhand or by a steam or other power relay, w 'ch in turn is manuallycontrolled through the medium of hunting-gear.

In the accompanying drawmgs,F1gure 1 is an elevation, partly in section,showin in an elementary or diagrammatic manner t e ap- Moreover,

plication of the invention to a hydraulic press of the t e referred to;and Fig. 2 is a partial view of t e same, showing the application of apower-relay for actuating the controllinglever of the main steam-valve.

The same numerals of reference denote like parts in both figures.

1 is the main ram of the press, fitted to work in the cylinder 2, thepress-head 3 being coupled by the rods 4 to the lifting or retractingpistons 5, which are fitted to work in steam-cylinders 6. The maincylinder 2 of the press is connected by the high-pressure pipe 7 withthe intensifier-cylinder 8 and also with the air vessel 9 through thelow-pressure pipe 10, which communicates with the cylinders 2 and 8through the valves 11 and 12, respectively, the arrangement being asusual.

The intensifier-ram 13 is integral with the piston-rod 14 of the piston15, which is fitted to work in the main steam-cylinder 16.

17 is the main controlling-valve, (consisting of a balancedpiston-valve, as usual,) whereby motive fluid may be admitted from themain steam-pi e 18 either to the main steam-cylinder 16 t rough the pipe19 or to the lifting-cylinders 6 through the pipe 20 alternatively ormay be discharged from either of said cylinders to the exhaust 21, asusual. In both.figures the valve 17 is shown closed, the press beingunderstood to be at rest.

Referring to Fi 1, it will be seen that the hand-lever 22, w 'ch workson a fixed fulcrum 23, actuates the stem 24 of the main valve 17 notdirectly, as usual, but through the medium of a floating lever 25, whichis pivoted at a point 26 about midway in its length to the valve-stem 24and is coupled by one of its ends 27 to the hand-lever 22 through a link28, the opposite end 29 of the floating lever being likewise coupled bya link 30 to the automatic controllinggear. This gear (in its preferredform, as shown on the drawing's) comprises a movable bar 31, extendingpreferably alongside of the intensifier-ram 13 between the cylinders 8and 16 and at a slight angle to their common axis, so as to be adaptedto be acted upon by a cam stud and one arm 33 of a three-armedbell-crank lever, which is fulcrumed at a fixed point 34, another arm 35of this lever being coupled, through the link 30, to, the floating lever25. The outer or upper end of the bar 31 is pivotally attached to onearm 36 of a second threearmed bell-crank lever, which is fulcrumed at afixed point 37, the lever-arms 33 and 36 normally extending in the samedirection and approximately parallel to the bar 31. two bell-cranklevers are caused to act in unison by arms 38 and 39 on the lower andupper levers, respectively, bein coupled together by means of a rod 40,W ile the upper lever (by the pressure of a spring or of a weight 41,suspended from its third arm 42, as shown) is constantly forced in adirection to cause the bar 31 to bear against the roller 32.

The action of the automatic controlling gear is as follows: Assuming themain ram 1 and press-head 3 to have been raised in the ordinary courseof operations and that it is required to bring the press-head down uponthe work, then on moving the hand-lever 22 to the dotted position 22"the floating lever 25 (owing to the resistance exerted by the weight 41through lever-arms 42 39, rod 40, lever-arms 38 35, and link 30) willturn about the point 29 as a fulcrum, and consequently the valve-stem2.4 Will be depressed, so as to cause the valve 17 to admit motive fluidto the main steam-cylinder 16 and to exhaust it from thelifting-cylinders 6. The piston 15 will therefore be raised and byforcing Water from cylinder 8 into cylinder 2 will cause the main ram 1to descend in the usual manner. As the piston 15 rises the roller '32will likewise ascend, and in so doing will force the upper endof the bar31 toward the left in opposition to the weight 41. Consequently the gearWill be caused tomove so as to gradually raise the arm 35 of the lowerbell-crank lever, andwith it the end 29 of the floating lever 25, whichwill now (owing to the resistance offered by the hand of the operator onthe hand-lever 22) turn about the point 27 as a fulcrum, and thus thevalve-stem 24 will be raised, so as to return the valve 17 to a positionwherein steam is cut off from the cylinder 16. By this means steam willbe cut oflfrom cylinder 16 gradually and automatically at a point in thestroke of piston 15 corresponding to the position to which lever 22 hadbeen moved, the cutoff in any case occurring so far before the piston 15reaches the upper or outer end of its active stroke (the exact point ofultimate cut off being determined b the 'controlfi excessive travel ofthe piston will be eliminated. At the same time the hand-lever 22position and Will'in any case be returned to The I the preliminaryadjustment. ofng-gear) that any possibility of normal fore wit controlof the operator.

and press-head 3 are to be raised, the hand" lever 22 is moved in theopposite direction to that mentioned before'i. a, to the position 22thus causin the floating lever 25 to turn about the point 29 as a fixedfulcrum, so as to raise the valve-spindle 24 and bring the valve 17 to aposition wherein it admits motive fluid from the main steam-pi e 18 tothe lifting cylinders 6 by Way of t e .pipe 20. During the liftingmovement of the press the automatic controlling-gear is not required tocome into action, since the main-steamiston remains at thebottom of itstravel, w ile the point 29, forming the fulcrum of'lever 25,

is held stationary by the wei ht 41.

In casessuoh, for examp e, as those of in- A stallations of heavyplantwhere the direct manual actuation of the lever 22 might belaborious this lever may be workedby a steam or other power relay underthe control of an under the automatic control of a secon hunting-gear.Such an arrangement is illustrated in Fig. 2, wherein the lever 22 iscoupled to a piston 43, fitted to reciprocate in a steam or othercylinder 44 under the control 0f 'a slidevalve 45, adapted to beinitially. set by a movement in either direction, as required, by meansof a hand-lever 46' so as to admit motive fluid onthe. one andexhaust'it' from the other side of the piston 43. The lever 46'isconnected to one end'of' a floating lever 47, whereof the opposite end-is-coupled by a link 48 to the lever 22, the slide-valve 45 beingconnected'to an intermediate point, as at 49, in the length of thefloating lever, so thatthe valve 45 will always be automaticallyreturned to normal'position when or before the piston 43 reaches the endof'its stroke. In either case means are provided whereby when it isrequired to work the press rapidly with short strokes a permanentcushion of live steam may be maintained beneath the lifting-pistons 5,said means consisting, as usual, of a cook 51, (controlled by a lever50,) on a the pipe'20 and liftin .-cylinders 6,'the areasily-moved valveactuated directlyb hand rangement being such t atwhen the lever 50' isshifted to the position 50*" steam is admit.-

'ted to the lifting-cylinders 6independ'ently of the valve 17.

Inorder to enable water to be withdrawn from-the'system, means areprovided whereby on' the lever 22'being moved beyond the 'normaldistancein the direction to admit motive fluid to the lifting-cylinders 6thevalve V 12 will be positi'vel opened against the lsprin -pressure by .w'fch it is normally, held 0 ose so that water may then be passedout] illter and raise the free end 53 of a sway-bar 54, pivoted at a fixed point55, the other end 56 of said bar being, connected to the rod 57, Whoseupper end is attached to a lever 58, fulcrumed at 59, so as to bear uponthe stem of the valve 12 in the direction to cause said valve to open.By this means on the lever 22 being moved to the position 22 the lever58 will be depressed and the valve 12 caused to open against its spring.

Where a power-relay is employed to oper ate lever 22, as in Fig. 2, themovement of the hand-lever 46 to the positions 46, 46 and 46 willobviously produce the same results as the movement of lever 22 to thepositions 22, 22", and 22 directly by hand, as already explained withreference to F ig. 1.

It is to be understood that instead of steam any other suitable motivelluidsuch, for eX- ample, as compressed airmay be employed in thecylinders 6 and 16.

I claim 1. In a hydraulic press working on the steamintensifier system,the combination with the steam-piston of the intensifier, the valve forcontrolling the supply of steam to said piston, and-a hand-lever wherebysaid valve is initially set, of mechanism including a movable bar, areciprocatory device in contact therewith, and an intermediateresistance connected to said valve and hand-lever and controlledautomatically by the steampiston in such manner that the movement ofsaid piston in performing its working stroke will cause the supply ofsteam to be cut oil in accordance with the position to which thehand-lever has been set.

2. In a hydraulic press working on the steam-intensifier system, thecombination. with the steam-piston of the intensifier, the valve forcontrolling the supply of steam to said piston, and a hand-lever wherebsaid valve is initially set, of mechanism inc uding a movable bar, areciprocatory device in contact therewith, and an intermediate Weightconnected to said valve and hand-lever and controlled automatically bythe steam-piston in such manner that the movement of said piston inperforming its working stroke will cause the supply of steam to be cutoff in accordance with the position to which the handlever has been set.v

3. In ahydraulic press, working on a steamintensifier system, thecombination with the steam-piston of the intensifier, of a valve forcontrolling the supply of steam to the piston, a hand-lever, a floatinglever pivoted to the stem of the main valve and coupled by one end tothe hand-lever, a movable bar connected to'the other end of the floatinglever,-

and means whereby the steam-piston may actuate the movable bar duringits working stroke to close the steam-valve, substantially as described.7 v

.4. In a hydraulic press, the combination with the steam-piston of theintensifier of a so-called floating lever pivoted to the stem of themain steamvalve, and another lever to which one end of the floatinglever is coupled, a movable bar connected to the other end of thefloating lever, adapted to be acted upon by the steam-piston during itsworking stroke, to cause the main steam-valve to be closed incorrespondence with the position to which the second-mentioned lever hasbeen set, a double-acting piston coupled to said secondmentioned lever,a reciprocatory piston within the cylinder, a slide-valve adapted toadmit fluid to the one side and exhaust it from THOMAS EDMUND HOLMES.

Witnesses:

LUTHER J. PARK, WILFRED H. SLATER.

